


Apple Pie and Pie Trees

by Ggunsailor



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon
Genre: F/M, THERE IS BAKING, and goofiness, tomfoolery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-01
Updated: 2018-11-01
Packaged: 2019-08-13 23:53:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16482140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ggunsailor/pseuds/Ggunsailor
Summary: Makoto wants to make an apple pie, but Nephrite doesn't know how.He's not going to let that stop him though...(Part of the Senshi & Shitennou Fic Mini Bang 2018)





	Apple Pie and Pie Trees

**Author's Note:**

> Ah, apple pie. Perhaps the most romantic dessert of all.  
> This was done with the lovely Vanessa from teamvanessacloud! Check out her notes at the end.  
> Come say hi at ggungabyfish.tumblr.com.

Nephrite’s done many things in his life.

But this is a first.

He’s standing in a grocery store in front of the produce section, looking down at apples of all different colors.

“Why am I doing this again?” He grumbles to himself, running a hand through his hair.

He flashes back to the phone call he got this morning.

\---------

_The phone rings, causing Nephrite to look up from his book. He puts the book aside, gets up from the couch, and goes to answer it._

_“Moshi-Moshi, this is Sanjoin Masato.”_

_“Well, hello.”_

_If anyone had been in the room, they would have seen the former North American General light up like a lantern, his smile bright and jovial. “Hi.”_

_“How are you?”_

_He leans against the table. “Ah, a little bored with the book I borrowed from Ami. Why she thought I would enjoy a book about the Meiji Restoration, I don’t know.”_

_Makoto chuckles under her breath. “She was just trying to be helpful, I’m sure. Now, are you busy this afternoon?”_

_“No, I’m free.”_

_“Well, would you like to make an apple pie with me?”_

_“Apple pie?”_

_“Yeah. Its fall, and I think it’s the perfect time to make it.”_

_Nephrite thinks about it. “So, you want me to make it with you?”_

_“…well, yeah, but then again it’s a stupid idea, and heck why would you want to—”_

_“Sure.”_

_“…really?”_

_He laughs at the incredulity in her voice. “Sure, I’m not that much of a baker, but why not?”_

_“Okay! I just need you to do one thing for me.”_

_“Name it.”_

_“Can you pick up the apples?”_

\-----------

And now here he was, not sure which apple to get. He’d been standing there for more than a few minutes, and he’s sure he’s attracting attention by looking broodily at fruit like he’s willing it to explode.

“Hmm, if Zoicite were here, he’d say I’ve been suckered,” he says to himself. Ah, he can’t say no to Makoto these days.

He’s contemplating finally asking a store employee for help when there’s a familiar _tap-tap_ of feet. Uh-oh. He recognizes that sound.

He grins to himself and turns to catch the Moon Princess in a hug. “Neph-nii!”

“Hello, Usagi-san,” he says, returning the big hug.

The odango-haired girl pulls away and grins up at him. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m on a mission for Makoto. She asked me to—”

“Nephrite-san!”

He turns to see Rei, Minako, and Ami coming up to him. Quite a group gathering, today. He nods greetings to the others.

Minako gets right to the point. “Is there a reason you’re looking at those apples like you’re ready to squish them into oblivion?”

Nephrite turns to look back at the banes of his existence. “Well…Makoto asked me if I would pick up apples to make apple pie, only…”

Rei finishes his thought. “But you don’t know which apples to buy.”

“Yes. I suppose I should have asked her, but—“

“Wait, wait, and let me guess: you wanted to impress her with your cooking aptitude!” Usagi finishes with a flourish. “Neph-nii, that’s so romantic!”

He laughs sardonically. “It’s not going to be unless I find the correct apples.”

Ami pulls out her little computer and quickly types out a question. “Let me see here…ah, it says that the best apples for making apple pie are Honeycrisps, Granny Smith, Melrose, Winesap, and Braeburn---wow that’s a lot of apples.”

Minako can’t help but say “Hey, Nephrite, how do you like ‘them apples’”? But seriously, folks,” she continues as everyone groans, “that can’t be that hard to find an apple.”

Nephrite suddenly has an idea. “Hmm…are you girls doing anything right now? I think I’ll need some help.”

\-----------

Makoto has seen a lot—a _lot_ of things in her life. She’s seen things that would make a grown man soil his pants.

But this…

Well, this would be a first.

She’d been getting everything ready for the baking session when her doorbell rang.

Now she’s just watching in shock as her boyfriend and her friends walk into her apartment carrying bags of apples. They must have bought out the whole produce section—at least all of the apples.

They’re sitting on the table now, and Nephrite is standing off to the side looking very sheepish. Ami, Rei, Minako, and Usagi look just as hangdog as he does.

She crosses her arms and gazes at them. “Okay, who wants to fess up?”

The former general raises his hand. “It—it was me. I wasn’t sure which apples you wanted me to get, so I bought all of them.”

At that, Makoto can’t really blame him; perhaps in all her excitement about this new venture, she hadn’t thought about telling him which kind of apples to get for the pie.

But she glances over at her friends, who again look just as sheepish. “What did you guys plan to get out of all this?”

Ami offers “We just wanted to help him. The cashier who checked us out said he’d been standing in front of the apples for at least an hour before we got there.”

“And we kind of wanted some pie, too,” Usagi says, sweat-dropping.

Makoto finally laughs. “Okay, okay. I do appreciate your help, and with all these apples, I think I can make more pies. Hmm, and maybe some other things, too.” She walks over to her boyfriend and kisses him on the cheek. “And thank you for being helpful.”

He smiles. “That’s what I’m here for.”

She then turns to the others. “Okay, you guys, out. As soon as we get a pie made, I’ll call you.”

\-----------

A few minutes later, Nephrite and Makoto are now in the kitchen wearing matching aprons (of course) and a bowl of freshly washed apples before them.

“Ok, so the first thing we need to do when peeling apples is to wash them.”

“Which we did.”

“Right. Now we take our apples,” Makoto picks one up, “take our paring knife and start peeling. Got your apple and knife?”

“Yep. So where do I start peeling?”

“You move from the top to the bottom going very slowly—slowly! Careful, we don’t want to take much of the flesh…off.”

Nephrite sweat drops, looking down at the huge chunk of fruit hanging from the peel. “Whoops.”

“That’s okay, that’s okay, and we can still use it, just cut that bit off.”

Nephrite does and then pops it into his mouth. “Mmm! Delicious.”

Makoto giggles. “Try not to eat too much of these, we need them for the pie.”

Thankfully they peel the rest of the fruit, slice them and place them into another bowl with some lemon juice to prevent browning.

“I honestly had no idea so much goes into making a pie.” Nephrite comments as he and Makoto wash their hands. “I thought it was just putting things together until they tasted right.”

“Well, with cooking that’s what it is, but baking is an exact science. That’s why we follow the recipe exactly so we don’t mess it up.”

“What do we do now?”

“Now we make the pie crust!”

Flour, sugar, salt, cold butter, and eggs are added to Makoto’s 1978 Robot-Coupe mixer (it was from her mom). Nephrite finds that he enjoys this part for some odd reason, watching as it all comes together. They dump the dough ball onto the floured counter, knead it together, and place it into the fridge for an hour.

The former bad guy says with a cheeky grin “What shall we do for an hour?”

The Senshi of Lightning says as she wraps her arms around his shoulders “Oh, we can think of something, I’m sure.”

\---

An hour passes quicker than they think, and it’s time to get the dough ball out of the fridge. Makoto has to adjust her hair band and Nephrite has to re-button his shirt. They roll the dough into the pie pan and reserve some of it to put the lattice on the top.

Now they mix spices, butter, and sugar together into the apples and put them into the pan.

“Okay, now we take our knife, cut the leftover dough into strips, and interweave them onto the top of the pie,” Makoto says, watching as her boyfriend cuts the dough.

“Does it make the pie taste better?”

She giggles. “No, it just makes it look nice.”

“Hmm, so aesthetics over taste—I see how it is.”

“Quit goofing around or we’ll never get this finished!”

Finally, the pie with the lattice goes into the oven. And Nephrite is now saying to himself that this is the best thing he’s ever done today.

“Neph-chan?”

He looks up from washing the mixing bowl. “Yes?”

Makoto put the freshly dried knife back into her cutlery drawer and turns to him. “Thank you for doing with this with me. I…I wasn’t sure if you’d want to do it.”

He leaves the bowl soaking in the sink and looks at her. “What do you mean by that?”

“…well, my old senpai didn’t like baking with me. I think he preferred the fact that he was getting free food out of the deal but he either was too busy or made a different excuse whenever I asked him if he wanted to.”

“Hmph.” He says, putting his arms around her waist. “His loss, my gain.”

She ducks her head down and smiles bashfully. “Thanks.”

They lean forward to kiss but then the oven timer goes off.

“Oh, that was fast!”

“By the gods, that smells delicious!”

The pie is a golden, luscious beauty when they take it out of the oven, the crust shimmering with bits of sugar.

Nephrite feels his mouth begin to water as the glorious scent of apples, sugar and cinnamon waft into the air. “Can we eat it now?”

Makoto rolls her eyes. “Patience, love; we have to wait until it cools a little before we can slice it.”

“Patience has never been my strong suit, Mako.”

“You’ll have to be patient for this one.”

Eventually, the dessert is cool enough to cut two big slices. Makoto hands him his on a plate and waits with baited breath as he cuts into the slice with his fork, and brings it to his mouth.

Nephrite has never eaten pie before---well, no that’s a lie, he has, but not homemade pie. He takes the bite and chews, closing his eyes.

…

... _oh dear sweet merciful heavens_

He outrights groans in pleasure, chewing and swallowing. “Mako, this is exquisite!”

She brightens up. “You like it?”

“I do! Very much so.” He puts one arm around her waist and brings her closer to him. “Thank you for making this.”

She grins. “Thank you for making it with me.”

“Do we have to make the one for Usagi, Rei, Minako, and Ami just yet?”  
“Nah, let them get their own.”

“Good, that means more for me.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Vanessa's commentary:  
> " The first picture at the bottom was drawn with the idea I got from the general description. The dress Makoto wears is based off the dress she wears in her dream in the one-shot story by Naoko Takeuchi - The Melancholy of Makoto. Nephrite has a matching shirt because in one of @i1976blunotte 's fanfictions, she had Nephrite wear an outfit that complemented Makoto's outfit.
> 
> In the second picture, Makoto is teaching Nephrite how to peel an apple and he's pretty nervous doing it.
> 
> My tumblr @teamvanessacloud"

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Apple Pies and Pine Trees](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16475708) by [teamvanessacloud](https://archiveofourown.org/users/teamvanessacloud/pseuds/teamvanessacloud)




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